To continue on from the “discomforts” of two weeks ago, “Working a little beyond my comfort level,” I’ve decided to hook with wool strips. Admit it; your first thought is: “How in God’s name can that be at all difficult?” Well, here’s the thing, I can’t remember the last time I made a rug or mat out of wool strips. At least primarily out of wool strips; I often mix them in with the yarn and t-shirt strips, and ribbons and other fibers I tend to favor.
It doesn’t sound like a problem, but it does require that I change my technique some. First of all, punching made me a “packer.” I like a heavy, dense mat. It’s particularly helpful when I use t-shirt. No one wants a flabby rug for the floor or the table or the wall. Now, too, I have to pay attention to my loops. Do they stand up for themselves? Are they too crowded? Worse, tomorrow I have my monthly guild meeting. Everyone uses wool strips. I can’t help but compare mine to theirs. Mary and Linda are so meticulous with their loops; their rugs look… professional. Mine? Not so much.
This brings up another “discomfort.” Strip width. Linda generously offered to lend me her extra Bliss cutter a few months ago. Currently, I don’t own one, never have. I’ve cut by hand all these years. Because I initially used mostly yarn and then other fibers, this was no big deal. You can’t cut t-shirt with a cutter. But, hey, I like to branch out as much as the next gal. So, I’ve been cutting wool strips; they’re all (mostly) of equal width for this little rug – 6s.
Sounds good, but now I’m feeling more pressure when I look at Mary’s and Linda’s rugs. Such uniformity with all those same-size strips. And they have technique to match them. (And design and color sense.) Yeah, I don’t. In fact, you could say my uniformity is wholly in my non-uniformity. I could hide that some in the past when I cut my strips with scissors. Besides a sore hand, I’d have variable strips that lent an air of…eccentricity. Like your crazy, old great aunt, the one you love to death but can’t exactly say why beyond how she always wears bright colors like scarlet and teal and magenta.
There’s no hiding with the Bliss-cut wool strips. But it’s a challenge, and, like I said, I need to stretch a little. Besides, it’s only a little mat, about 8″x8″. I can handle that. And if I’m having problems, I have Linda and Mary and Mary and Nancy and all the others to help me out. That’s one of the benefits of belonging to a guild, a class, or even a couple sitting together on the porch hooking, chatting, and eating. (Someone commented on Facebook recently how much we hookers love to eat.) We’re there for one another.
There are many more tiny mats in my immediate future. Last week I received word that I’d been juried into Albuquerque’s Rail Yard Market. Not sure if we’ll sell much and how many Sundays I’m scheduled for, but there’s a lot of traffic, and it’s just a fun place to be. More about this later.
What hangs you up in rug hooking? Hooking perfect lines of perfect wool strips like me? Packing too tightly (note that I do not consider this a hang-up). Loop height? (By the way, I favor TALL loops.) Burlap versus linen versus monks’ cloth? Or do you subscribe to the thought that it’s all about personal style, to hell with the other artists?
What you’ve already done looks terrific. So worry not about strips of wool; whatever you do will be cool.
My unworthy attempt at rhyming. Love the desert in March. First time I saw it I was stunned because I mistakenly thought it just brown.
Definitely not brown. All kinds of flowering plums and ornamental pears around. And I’m so happy; we discovered that one of the bushes in the back is a little lilac. Hopefully, it’ll have plenty of lilac smell. Love that! This fall I’ll put in some bulbs.
Practise, practise, practise! I learned from a McGown teacher and she was on us all the time. Hooking evenly will come. I can say this as I am about to machine quilt, whihc is hard for me and I need to practise, practise, practise…. All my older hooked items are burlap, as that was used them and was much cheaper. I do find that linen stays better on my frame. I am going to look up the name of the linen used for inchie rugs.
What is an “inchie” rug, Deb??? I love my monks’ cloth, but I am considering trying some linen. One of my guild mates sells supplies, so I can pick it up from her. And I need to find a new monks’ cloth supplier. My Colorado supplier closed up shop last year. I bought a bunch of it then and am starting to run low.
I think inchie is another term for making a matrix. A hooker in my IL guild divided her rug warp into a grid with a marker and then used another one to draw the pattern on top, the matrix pattern. Jen’s book probably covers it. I googled inchie and nothing came up!
Maybe it’s rug warp, which is cotton. You could contact Jen.
https://dorrmillstore.com/index.php/site/products/category/foundation_cloth/17
I’ve seen rug warp. It’s coarser than monks’ cloth, but you’re right, more evenly woven. Might as well try that too!